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Voltron Wiki:Manual of Style (MoS)
THIS ARTICLE IS UNDER THE EDITING PROCESS BY AVATARAERO. This Manual of Style will be the style guide for how to write, change and otherwise improve upon articles that you choose to edit. It establishes basic rules of language, grammar, punctuation and other nuances that would assist you in writing your article. Please make sure to adhere to all guidelines on this page, as they are the accepted policies for this Wiki. Also, all examples used are either from Voltron: Legendary Defender and include links. Article titles, sections and headings Article Titles An article title is a convenient label for the article, which distinguishes it from other articles. It need not be the name of the subject; many article titles are descriptions of the subject. The following points are critical to formatting article titles: * Use "sentence case" or "sentence-style": The initial letter of a title is capitalized; otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence. ** Correct: Lance's bayard ** Incorrect: Lance's Bayard ** Correct: Castle of the Lions ** Incorrect: Castle Of The Lions * Use the singular form: Article titles should be singular. ** Correct'':' Balmera ** Incorrect: ''Balmeras * '''Use full names without ranks for characters: Articles about characters should avoid the title or rank, unless the character is known only by the title ** Correct: Sendak ** Incorrect'': Commander Sendak * '''Use parentheses to distinguish similar articles:' ** Correct: Galra Empire (Present) ** Correct: Myzax (Gladiator) ** Correct: Voltron (Blue Lion) Article sections * Headings should not normally contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked. * Citations should not be placed within or on the same line as section and subsection headings. * Headings should not contain images, including flag icons. Spelling American spelling should be used on all canon encyclopedia articles on Voltron Wiki, on any template transcribed on articles, on transcripts and on all official projects and blog posts. This is to reflect the American origin of Voltron: Legendary Defender. There are the following exceptions: * Regional variations in spelling may be used in all other contexts on Voltron Wiki, such as comments, talk pages, user pages, blog posts, fanon and fan fiction. * If quoting a source, never alter any part of the quotation, even if it does not use American spelling. * If the name, location, or object has a spelling or pronounciation that differs from English origin or does not comply with English rules ** Coran (pronounced KOR - an) Capital letters Unnecessary capitalization should be avoided. For example, use "bayard" instead of "Bayard". This is sometimes referred to as the "down style". Capitalization should be reserved for proper names only. Capitalization of "The" In general, do not capitalize the definite article in the middle of a sentence. However, some idiomatic exceptions, including most titles of artistic works, should be quoted exactly according to common usage. : Incorrect (generic): an article about "The Galra Empire" : Correct (generic): an article about "the Galra Empire" : Incorrect (title): He wrote "the Black Paladin". : Correct (title): He wrote "The Black Paladin". : Titles * In generic use, apply lower case for words such as king and chief ** Alfor was king of Altea prior to its destruction. * In parts of a person's title, begin such words with a capital letter. Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper nouns. Royal styles are capitalized; exceptions may apply for particular offices. ** Correct: KingAlfor ** Incorrect: king Alfor ** Correct: Commander Sendak ** Incorrect: commander Sendak ** Correct: His Highness, King Alfor ** Incorrect: his highness, King Alfor : Incorrect (generic): The King of the planet Arus took a liking to Allura. : Correct (generic): The king of the planet Arus took a liking to Allura. : Incorrect (title): They met emperor Zarkon for the first time. : Correct (title): They met Emperor Zarkon for the first time. : Calendar items Seasons should be in lower case * The memories of King Alfor reflect spring in Altea. Flora and fauna Flora and fauna should be in lower case e.g. flying bison. An exception to this is if a character is known by the name of their species. : Incorrect (generic): Pidge was led by a Sloth to the Green Lion. : Correct (generic): Pidge was led by a sloth to the Green Lion. : Incorrect (character): The blue lion was found first. : Correct (character): The Blue Lion was found first. : Celestial bodies * When used generally, the words sun, earth, and moon do not take capitals: ** The sun was peeking over the mountain top. ** The people of the Galra Empire thought of the whole universe as their domain. * The exception is when the term refers to a proper name: ** Balmeran Crystal * Names of celestial bodies are proper nouns, and therefore capitalized. The first letter of every word in such a name is capitalized. ** Balmera V - 95 - Vox ** Altea Locations * Names of institutions are proper nouns and require capitals. * Generic words for institutions (university, college, hospital, high school) do not take capitals: ** Incorrect (generic): The Academy teaches pilots of planes. ** Correct (generic): The academy teaches pilots of planes. ** Correct (title): The Garrison Academy teaches pilots of planes. * Political or geographical units such as cities, towns, and countries follow the same rules: as proper nouns they require capitals; but as generic words (sometimes best omitted for simplicity) they do not. ** Incorrect (generic): The Planet has a population of 300 million beings. ** Correct (generic): The planet has a population of 300 million beings. ** Correct (title): The planet Balmera has a population of 300 million beings. ** Incorrect (generic): Planets are located in the javeeno star system. ** Correct (proper noun): Planets are located in the Javeeno star system. "Internet" and "web" Like with other cases involving generic terms, "web" should not be capitalized unless it is used as part of the official name of a system or an organization. "Internet" is always capitalized. Italics * Use italics for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, pamphlets, films (including short films), television series, music albums, and paintings. ** Voltron: Defenders of the Universe * The titles of articles, chapters, songs, television episodes, and other short works are not italicized; they are enclosed in double quotation marks. ** "The Black Paladin" * Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation ** Correct: What are we to make of that?, ** Incorrect: What are we to make of that?. Punctuation Apostrophes Consistent use of the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( ' ) is recommended, as opposed to the curly (or typographic) apostrophe ( ’ ). Quotation marks * Use double quotation marks: Enclose quotations with double quotation marks. Enclose quotations within quotations with single quotation marks. ** Keith said, "You are the worst pilot ever?" ** Lance replied, "Why did you say 'I'm the worst pilot ever'?" * When the title of an article appearing in the lead paragraph requires quotation marks (for example, the title of a song or poem), the quotation marks should not be in boldface, as they are not part of the title. ** "The Black Paladin" Place all punctuation marks inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material and outside if they are not. This practice is sometimes referred to as logical punctuation. This is more in keeping with a principle of minimal change. This punctuation system does not require placing final periods and commas outside the quotation marks all the time, but rather maintaining their original positions in (or absence from) the quoted material. :* Correct: Shiro said, "We're going to have to work as a team." :** The period is known to be in the source. :* Correct: Lance "worries about his family". :** The period is known not to be in the source, its presence in the source is uncertain, or its coverage within the quotation is considered unnecessary. :* Correct: Keith wondered, "Why is Pidge leaving?" :** The question mark belongs inside the quotation because the quoted text itself was a question. :* Correct: Did Hunk really say "I want some food"? :** The very quote is being questioned, so the question mark belons outside; any punctuation at the end of the original quote is omitted. * When a quoted sentence fragment ends in a period, some judgment is required: if the fragment communicates a complete sentence, the period can be placed inside. The period should be omitted if the quotation is in the middle of a sentence. ** Correct: Shiro said, "Let's move", and they followed him. :* If the sequence of juxtaposed punctuation marks seems distracting or untidy, try an acceptable alternative. :** Correct: Shiro said "Let's move" (and they followed him). : Brackets and parentheses * If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase, place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets (as shown here). * If one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets, place their punctuation inside the brackets. There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should be preceded by a space, except in unusual cases; for example, when it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word. Ellipses An ellipsis is an omission, often used in a printed record of conversation. The ellipsis is represented by ellipsis points: a set of three dots. ; Style : Ellipsis points, or ellipses, have traditionally been implemented in three ways: :* Three unspaced periods (...). This is the easiest way in the context of web publishing, and gives a predictable appearance in HTML. Recommended. :* Pre-composed ellipsis character (…); generated with the … character entity, or as a literal "…". This is harder to input and edit, and too small in some fonts. Not recommended. :* Three spaced periods (. . .). This is an older style that is unnecessarily wide and requires non-breaking spaces to keep it from breaking at the end of a line e.g. . . . . It is now generally confined to some forms of print publishing. Not recommended. ; Function and implementation : Use an ellipsis if material is omitted in the course of a quotation, unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation (see above, and points below). :* Put a space on each side of an ellipsis, except that there should be no space between an ellipsis and: :** a quotation mark directly following the ellipsis :** any (round, square, curly, etc.) bracket, where the ellipsis is on the inside :** sentence-final punctuation, or a colon, semicolon, or comma (all rare), directly following the ellipsis :* Only place terminal punctuation after an ellipsis if it is textually important (as is often the case with exclamation marks and question marks, and rarely with periods). :* Use non-breaking spaces ( ) only as needed to prevent improper line breaks, for example: :** To keep a quotation mark from being separated from the start of the quotation ("... we are still worried"). :** To keep the ellipsis from wrapping to the next line ("The Air Nomads, Northern Water Tribe, ... and Earth Kingdom but not the Fire Nation"). ; Pause or suspension of speech : Three periods (loosely also called ellipsis points) are occasionally used to represent a pause in or suspense of speech, in which case the punctuation is retained in its original form (Katara's startled reply was: "Could he ...? No, I cannot believe it!"). Avoid this usage, except in direct quotations. ; With square brackets : An ellipsis does not normally need square brackets around it, because its function is usually obvious—especially if the guidelines above are followed. Square brackets, however, may optionally be used for precision, to make it clear that the ellipsis is not itself quoted; this is usually only necessary if the quoted passage also uses three periods in it to indicate a pause or suspension. The ellipsis should follow exactly the principles given above, but with square brackets inserted immediately before and after it (Her long rant continued: "How do I feel? How do you think I ... look, this has gone far enough! ... I want to go home!"). Commas * Pairs of commas are often used to delimit parenthetic material, forming a parenthetical remark. This interrupts the sentence less than a parenthetical remark in (round) brackets or dashes. Do not be fooled by other punctuation, which can mask the need for a comma, especially when it collides with a bracket or parenthesis, as in this example: ** Incorrect: Coran and Hunk, while trapped in the Balmera (in mine shafts made by the Galra) met Shay and some other Balmerans. ** Correct: Coran and Hunk, while trapped in the Balmera (in mine shafts made by the Galra), met Shay and some other Balmerans. * Place quotation marks in accordance with logical punctuation: ** Incorrect: She said, "Punctuation styles on Voltron Wiki are way too complicated," and also made other policy - related complaints. ** Correct: She said, "Punctuation styles on Voltron Wiki are way too complicated", and also made other policy - related complaints. * Use serial commas. This is more consistent with the recommendations of authoritative style guides. ** Incorrect: Shiro is the leader of Team Voltron, which includes Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Keith. ** Correct: Shiro is the leader of Team Voltron, which includes Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Keith. * Modern practice is against excessive use of commas; there are usually ways to simplify a sentence so that fewer are needed. Colons A colon (:) informs the reader that what comes after it demonstrates, explains, or modifies what has come before, or is a list of items that has just been introduced. The items in such a list may be separated by commas; or, if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas, the items should be separated by semicolons: : The Castle of Lions has many features: The invisible electrical maze, the dormitories and the control room, to name a few. In most cases a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it. There are exceptions, such as when the colon introduces items set off in new lines like the very next colon here. Examples: : Correct: There were two times when Shiro had to relive his past forcefully: With Sendak and against Haggar. : Incorrect: The times Shiro had to relive his past were: With Sendak and against Haggar. : Correct (special case): Lance and Keith: Two of the most polar members of Team Voltron. The word following a colon is capitalized, if that word effectively begins a new grammatical sentence, and especially if the colon serves to introduce more than one sentence: : The plan was easy for Sendak to follow: Infiltrate the Castle of Lions using a robotic device. Once inside, he would begin the real process: hooking up his Galra crystal to the mainframe. No sentence should contain more than one colon. There should never be a hyphen or a dash immediately following a colon. Only a single space follows a colon. Semicolons A semicolon (;) is sometimes an alternative to a period, enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence; it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma. If the semicolon separates clauses, normally each clause must be independent (meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence); often, only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence. : Correct: Though Shiro thought he had forgotten his past, his past did not forget hiim. : Incorrect: Though Shiro thought he had forgotten his past; his past did not forget him. : Above, "Though Shiro thought he had forgotten his past" cannot stand on its own as a sentence, and therefore is not an independent clause. : Correct: Lance is very competitive; Keith is much calmer. : Incorrect: Lance is very competitive, Keith is much calmer. : This incorrect use of a comma between two independent clauses is known as a comma splice; however, in very rare cases, a comma may be used where a semicolon would seem to be called for: : Accepted: "Life is short, art is long." : Accepted: "I have studied it, you have not." : A semicolon does not force a capital letter in the word that follows it. A sentence may contain several semicolons, especially when the clauses are parallel; multiple unrelated semicolons are often signs that the sentence should be divided into shorter sentences, or otherwise refashioned. : Clumsy: Lance is competitive; Keith is much calmer; Pidge is hyperactive; Shiro is their leader. : More Refined: Lance is competitive, Keith is much calmer, Pidge is hyperactive; Shiro is their leader. : Dashes Two forms of dash are possible: en dash (–) and em dash (—). On Voltron Wiki, there is no preference. The hyphen can easily replace the dash, as making either dash may take too much time and hyphen's are reasonable replacements. : Do not use more than two dashes in a single sentence. More than two makes the structure unclear; it takes time for the reader to see which dashes, if any, form a pair. * Correct: Pidge - and Lance - can both be classified as hyperactive. * Incorrect: Lance - waking from his coma - realized that Sendak was attaking his friends - and used his bayard to shoot him. Slashes Avoid joining two words by a slash, also known as a forward slash or solidus (/). Consider alternative wordings to avoid it. Terminal punctuation * Clusters of question marks, exclamation marks, or a combination of them (such as the interrobang), are highly informal and inappropriate in articles. * Use the exclamation mark with restraint. It is an expression of surprise or emotion that is generally unsuitable for an encyclopedia. Spacing * Never place a space before commas, semicolons, colons, or terminal punctuation. * Always place a space after the punctuation marks just mentioned, unless it is the end of a paragraph, dot point, list element or the article. * Use one space after terminal punctuation. The use of double spaces is pointless as MediaWiki automatically condenses any number of spaces to just one when rendering the page. Punctuation and footnotes Footnotes are used to add references (see policy on verifiability). "Ref" tags should immediately follow the text to which they refer, with no space before the tag. When they coincide with punctuation, the tag is placed immediately after the punctuation. Multiple tags should have no space between them. * Example: Shiro used to be a part of the imprisoned on the Galra ship,10 and was saved by Keith and Lance to be the leader of Team Voltron.1112 Exceptions: "ref" tags are placed before, not after, dashes; and where a reference or other footnote applies only to material within a parenthetical phrase, placing the tag within the closing parenthesis may be appropriate. * Example: Not only was Shiro subjected to experiments, courtesy of Haggar,13 he also was forced to fight in gladiator matches14, notably against Myzax.15 (In the above examples, in a real article, the footnote markers, 10 11 etc. would link to footnotes in the footnotes/reference list at the end of the article, created by use of the template.) Dates and time * For this Wiki, use reference years instead of actual year numbers. Since we do not have any information on what year period this is, we cannot assume the year that the show takes place. Therefore, when referring to events that took place in the past or will take place in the future, refer to them using comparison years. ** 10,000 years ago, Allura was sealed away in the Castle of Lions. ** However, you may choose to say 10,000 AZ for any even that takes place in real time during the course of the season, or until we learn some concrete year values. * Use of the term "current" should be avoided. What is current today may not be tomorrow; situations change over time. Instead, use date and time-specific text. Numbers * In general, write whole numbers one through nine as words, write other numbers that take two words or fewer to say as either numerals or words, and write all other numbers as numerals: 1/5 or one fifth, 84 or eighty-four, 200 or two hundred, but 3.75, 544, 21 million). This applies to both ordinal and cardinal numbers. * Use a comma to delimit numbers with four or more digits to the left of the decimal point: 12,345 and 1,000. Grammar * For the possessive of singular nouns ending with just one s'', add just an apostrophe. * For a normal plural noun, ending with a pronounced ''s, form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe e.g. his sons' wives. Tense Edit For in-universe articles: * Past tense must be used on any event articles, articles describing entities that are deceased or no longer exist, or sections of any in-universe article detailing past events ** Allura was locked away, as opposed to is locked away. * Present tense must be used on any location, creature, and character article, where this does not conflict with the first guideline. Current "in-universe time" on Voltron Wiki is generally considered to be fixed at the end of the announced series which is furthest down the timeline. Vocabulary Formal use of language is mandatory on all canon encyclopedia articles. Do not use colloquial words; rather, use descriptive words that lend an idea of imagery. Formality and neutrality * Uncontracted forms such as do not or it is are the default in encyclopedic style; don't and it's are too informal. * On encyclopedia articles, avoid such phrases as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in a less-than-encyclopedic tone. Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, unfortunate, etc. This supplies a point of view. Simply state the sourced facts and allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Perspective Edit Articles on Voltron Wiki are one of two types: * In-universe: Article should be written as if the Voltron world was the real world. Episodes should not be referred to in a sentence, and characters should not be treated as fictional constructs. These articles include all character, location, flora and fauna, event etc. articles – all articles not in the real world category. * Real world: Article should be written from "our" perspective. This includes all actor, staff, episode and film articles. Images * Avoid sandwiching text between two images that face each other, or between an image and an infobox. * Lead images, which usually appear inside an infobox, should usually be no wider than 250px. * Thumbnails shown in the article should generally be 200px. Images containing important detail (e.g. a map, diagram, or chart) may need larger sizes than usual to make them readable. Links * Make links only where they are relevant and helpful in the context: Hyperlinks are distracting, and may slow the reader down. Redundant links (e.g. the tallest people on Earth) clutter the page and make future maintenance harder. High-value links that are worth pursuing should stand out clearly. * Do not add external links to other ''Voltron ''- related sites without permission. If you are the owner or member of another specifically Avatar-related site and you believe that a link to your site from Avatar Wiki would be beneficial, affiliate with us. * Do not use external links in the body of an article. Articles can include an external links section at the end, pointing to further information outside Avatar Wiki as opposed to citing sources. Miscellaneous Source mode editing markup * Place spaces on either side of the text in a heading e.g. Heading . * Place a blank line before a line containing a heading, except when a sub-heading immediately follows a heading, where there should be no blank line between the heading and the sub-heading. * Do not place a blank line between a heading and the text or files below it. * If used, should be added immediately under the heading. If it is followed by a file, the file link should be immediately under it before a blank line separating the file link and the beginning of the text. * File link parameters should appear in this order: * Place blank lines before and after a file, separating it from body text. * Place a space after the asterisk and hash symbols in unordered and ordered lists respectively, so that each new list item is easier to find e.g. * Item. * Sparingly, longer quotes of short passages of dialogue may be emphasized by using tags. Of course, the quoted text should be in italics and be enclosed with quotation marks e.g. "Quote" — Who said it to Whom. * Reference lists should be enclosed within a scroll box. To promote consistency and ease of editing, the following items, if appropriate, should appear in this order before the lead section of an article. # , which should appear together on one line rather than split apart. # Information about other uses, similar topics and links to disambiguation pages. # Notices detailing article quality and areas of improvement – if more than one is used, they should appear together on the same line, and should not be separated by spaces. If more than two are used, enclose them with . # template containing a relevant quotation, in the color most closely associated with the subject of the article. The quoted text itself should not contain links. (See below for more information.) # Infobox template, if a relevant one exists, split apart with a line for each template parameter. The closing curly bracket for the infobox template should be on a new line. The lead section should begin directly after this curly bracket, not on a new line. Separate each of the items listed above with a blank line. Other points * Quotes may be added to any page. Quote boxes should only be used once at the top of the page. Quotes for battle pages should be the color of the instigator of the overarching conflict. Changing a profile quote must be done through the profile quote change page. * Allies may be added to the infoboxes of characters. Only major allies can be added e.g. do not add the fisherman as an ally of Aang. * Translations of Chinese key terms can be added to articles, but only if the Chinese being translated actually appeared in official material. For episode pages, create a main link to Writing in the World of Avatar. * Speculation may not be added to any Avatar Wiki article. * Credits for an episode should contain character names written as they are given in the respective episode. If this conflicts with the actual name of the character, they should still be credited by the name given in the episode. The Manual of Style from which I adapted this Manual of Style to fit the Voltron Wiki is from the Avatar Wiki. The link is here.